Your thoughts on 'mute' protaganists

[Christopher Waldron]

Recently I did something which for some reason I never thought I would do, played Half-life. Quite why I thought I would never do this I had no idea, but it got me thinking. Gordon Freeman is possibly the most famous of the 'mute' protagnists in games and manages to remain silent even when facing off against *possible spoiler!* a 30 foot flying alien with a head that evolution obviously ignored.

However, I liked this as it allowed me to project my thoughts and feelings into Gordon's emotional blank canvas. Granted, others may not share this view but I'd love to find out what the feelings are of other Escapists on this matter.

 

[newfoundsky]

I kind of like how Halo does it. The soldier sometimes talks. Not like that whiny brat, Fenix.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I like it, it lets me project my thoughts onto the character instead of feeling detacthed because they're nothing like me. It's just a different way to try and immerse the player.

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[Kollega]

When a character speaks only when neccesary? I can live with it. When a character has starred in 14 games without saying a single thing? I hate it. Simple as that.

 

[Slavik_91]

Sometimes it fits, like on HL, and sometimes it sucks horribly, like on Dragon age: Origins

 

[Sleekgiant]

Maybe all of the characters had strep throat and felt it best not to talk. Now to stop being silly, I don't really care if they talk or not, I'm there for explosions.

 

[jimduckie]

gee welcome to the escapist , in gta 3 (yeah i'm old) i liked it that the main character didn't talk , i don't mind the character talking its getting them to shut the fuck up that's the problem (mercs2, gta4 )

 

[Quoliver]

I can't make my mind up on this. Sometimes I like it because you can create your own personality for the character and imagine how he/she would react in certain situations, but sometimes I enjoy having a pre-programmed personality put in front of me. I'm not sure why different games make me feel this way.

Gordon will always be my favorite 'mute' though.

 

[Looking For Alaska]

I much prefer an actual realized character with personality and dreams and thoughts as opposed to a mute protagonist that supposed to be me.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I don't mind it, since it lets me role play the character a bit better than if they can speak, unless they sound uncannily like me.

 

[Brad Shepard]

I prefered the way mass effect did it, insted of compleat control without a word from your charecter (Persona anyone?) you still get to chose, but you also hear dialog.

 

[DoctorNick]

Depends entirely on the game.

In Half-Life? It works and frankly at this point I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't see how it would be anything except fucking lame at this point if the next Half-Life game had Gordon start talking. "Don't worry Alyx, it'll be alright! We'll show those Combine bastards whats-for!"

Bleh.

However, this isn't something I would want most other games to do. Dead Space for example bothered the living shit out of me because I keep expecting him to talk and he didn't.

 

[Alarien]

Depends on the game, as said before. Is the protagonist supposed to be YOU (ala GTA III, Oblivion/Morrowind) or is the protagonist a named individual with their own supposed motivations? (Gordon Freeman)

The latter, Half-Life example, is not acceptable in my opinion.

 

[CheckD3]

I like them sometimes, because sometimes, to quote yahtzee, the character knows that "his dialog would come from the same god awful crap eveyone's is coming from" (sorry, not 100% accuarte)

At the same time, sometimes it feels like their detatched, and any story you include them in feels disjointed. Kotor games are an example of a game that can have the "mute" w/o a voice, because you chose what they say, plus since the game is half dialog, it saves on time.

But a game where it's just not needed to have them not talk is just wrong. I played White Knight Chronicles, and you get to make a custom character. My character (who I decided to make a girl and name her after my girlfriend) just stood in the cutscenes silently, occasionally nodding or cowering or joining the REAL main character who had a name and a voice and a back story, and I wondered why I spent an extra 5 minutes creating her if all she was was another character standing in the background during the ENORMOUSLY long and obnoxious opening cutscenes...

 

[Plurralbles]

I came here to say it's easier to project yourself into the characte you're playing buthten I realized that you have absolutely no freedom to be you in a game, why bother trying to throw us such a shit covered bone as no voice?

 

[driveBYargument]

I prefer protagonists with a voice and character myself. So long as it is a great experience on the whole I'll play either way to be honest.

 

[mmmurple]

The original Half Life was created back in the day, back when celebrities weren't voicing characters and dialogue was a lot more limited. That decision to not voice him wasn't that big a deal back then.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I don't mind. Chrono Cross pulled it off especially well. You had so many allies, that they all spoke for you.

 

[Legion]

I hate it. I seriously hate when your character doesn't talk. In my opinion, it's lazy and cowardice. What you don't want to scare off some buyer with a protagonist they might not like? Let THEM fill in the blanks? Cheap, that's what it is. Give them traits, characteristics, emotions, a voice. Let them emote. Perhaps they can't afford a good writer and voice acting? I prefer when my protagonists have personalities and can speak, without a doubt.

Agreed to an extent. Some games for example wouldn't make sense with a speaking protagonist. RPG's for example it would ruin the affect of them being the player as they could say something that the player wouldn't. Bioshock 2 is another, being a Big Daddy and speaking would seem odd.